Written question asked by Nick Harvey (Liberal Democrat) on Friday, 20 February 2009, in the House of Commons. It was due for an answer on Tuesday, 24 February 2009. It was answered by Bob Ainsworth (Labour) on Tuesday, 3 March 2009 on behalf of the Ministry of Defence.

Afghanistan and Iraq: Peacekeeping Operations

Question: To ask the Secretary of State for Defence how many officers of each rank have served in (a) Iraq and (b) Afghanistan in each year since 2003.

Answer: Data on the numbers of officers who have served in (a) Iraq and (b) Afghanistan in each year during the period 2003-07, broken down by rank are not held centrally in individual level databases and as such could only be provided a disproportionate cost.Due to ongoing validation of data from the joint personnel administration (JPA) system, data on the numbers of officers who have served in (a) Iraq and (b) Afghanistan in 2008, broken down by rank are not available and as such could only be provided at disproportionate cost.

Secondary information